Xilinx helps UMC launch 0.18-micron fab services

The technology gap betweenpure-play silicon foundries and the
world's largest semiconductor houses just
got smaller, if not completely erased.
Taiwan's UMC Group and strategic foundry
customer Xilinx Inc., San Jose, Calif., today disclosed
the fabrication of a 1-GHz field
programmable gate array (FPGA) using a
new 0.18-micron process technology.

The 0.18-micron technology was
developed by UMC using a Xilinx
prototype FPGA, which enabled the
Hsinchu-based foundry company to
accelerate its work on the
next-generation process. UMC has already
run test chips for handful of customers,
according to company managers, and the
0.18-micron foundry services will be
made available to other chip suppliers in
the first quarter of 1999.

"By working together, we were able to
completely close the gap," said Dennis
Segers, vice president of FPGA
development at Xilinx and general
manager of the company's high-end FPGA
business unit.

A year ago, San Jose-based Xilinx began
working with UMC to develop the
0.18-micron technology after
successfully collaborating on a
0.25-micron process. That quarter-micron
technology moved UMC's most advanced
foundry services within six months of
some of the leading-edge integrated
device manufacturers (IDMs), which
operate their own fabs.

Most of the world's leading chip makers
are now gearing up to start volume
production with 0.18-micron processes by
the second half of 1999. UMC's aggressive
schedule appears to have put the
pure-play foundry ahead of a few leading
IDMs.

Xilinx is not disclosing when it will begin
shipping a 1-GHz FPGA, using the
0.18-micron process technology, but
Segers hinted that an introduction would
be likely in the first half of 1999. Xilinx is
now shipping a 75 million transistor FPGA,
produced with a 0.22-micron process at
UMC. The new 0.18-micron technology will
enable Xilinx to offer FPGAs with as many
as 150 million transistors, according to
Segers.

UMC intends to introduce copper
interconnect processing for the
0.18-micron technology in the third
quarter of 1999, said Jim Ballingall, vice
president of worldwide marketing at the
UMC Group, based in Sunnyvale, Calif.

Separately, UMC and Xilinx also today
announced the transfer of an advanced
0.22-micron process technology to the
United Silicon Inc. wafer foundry, a joint
venture between the two companies. The
new single-poly, five-layer metal process
is being used to produce Xilinx's Virtex
series of FPGAs, which includes the 75
million transistor chip. Samples of the
first Virtex FPGA chips became available
in October. The entire nine-member
family is slated to be available in early
1999.

UMC described its 0.22-micron process as
a second-generation 0.25-micron
technology. The process shrinks chip
sizes for lower costs while maintaining
2.5-volt operation.

By partnering with Xilinx, UMC was able to
bring the 0.22-micron technology to
volume production early, said Frank Wen,
president of USIC in Taiwan. "We believe
that UMC Group is currently the only
dedicated foundry with significant
production volumes at 0.25 micron, and
the only one offering a 0.22 micron
process," said Frank Wen, president of
USIC. "Our engineers continue to work
closely with foundry partners such as
Xilinx to meet their performance, yield,
cost and time-to-market requirements."

UMC intends to continue to push
aggressively ahead in the 0.18-micron
generation and in the 0.15-micron
technology, which has been under
development since early this year,
Ballingall said.